


Realization

by orphan_account



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F, One-Shot, US Women's Soccer National Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-09 17:22:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19480537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Alex Morgan could maybe tell you when she thinks she started to fall in love with Kelley O’hara, she can’t really tell you when she did fall in love with her, but she can absolutely tell you the moment she realized she was in love with her.





	Realization

**Author's Note:**

> Keeping it short and sweet, hope ya like it!  
> I'm very sorry that I don't know how to title things.

Alex Morgan couldn’t tell you when she fell in love with Kelley O’hara.

It probably started to happen when they met at their first national team camp, but she didn’t realize what was happening at the time. Of course, she didn’t really believe in love at first sight, so it’s not like she fell completely in love with her in that moment, but it certainly set the course for the next few years to take place.

So, Alex Morgan could maybe tell you when she _thinks_ she started to fall in love with Kelley O’hara, she can’t really tell you when she _did_ fall in love with her, but she can absolutely tell you the moment she _realized_ she was in love with her.

The Orlando Pride had a home game against the Utah Royals and the two, joined by their fellow national teammates from both sides, decided to go out for dinner after the game. They left right from the game, just changing into warmups in the locker room before meeting back up and finding a local pizza place to get dinner at, one that Alex came to often because it was one of the few that housed any real vegan options on the menu. Luckily, it was late and crowding into the small restaurant didn’t cause much of an inconvenience.

Alex and Kelley squeezed in next to each other in one of the two booths the group of sweaty soccer players were sitting around, everyone turning around in their seats to talk and laugh with each other, making it feel more like one large table, rather than two separate ones. Alex slid in first, Kelley following quickly after her, slinging her arm over Alex’s shoulders, a position far more comfortable than having your arms pressed into your sides because of the tight sitting conditions.

But maybe mostly because she just liked how Alex fit under her arm.

Jokes were being thrown back and forth between the group of girls, one that was tossed out caused Kelley to throw her head back with laughter, leaning closer into Alex and tightening her arm around the taller soccer player’s shoulders. She buried her head in Alex’s neck as she tried to control her laugh.

If Alex heard the joke told that set Kelley off, she doesn’t remember it. When she heard Kelley’s laugh begin she turned and looked at her, barely six inches from the other girl’s face. She was laughing along with the group at whatever was said before her breath caught in her throat after her eyes caught Kelley. The freckled girl was filled with such genuine joy; the way her cheeks stretched to fit her smile was easily the most beautiful thing Alex had ever seen. _Fuck_ , she thought, everything hitting her at once.

Kelley’s warm breath puffed against her neck and Alex leaned further into her, forcing herself to try and laugh along naturally but her attempt was hardly convincing.

When Kelley pulled away and rejoined the conversation Alex was left in her thoughts. The feeling of Kelley’s arm around her shoulders became ten times heavier than it was before, as it now had the added weight of every feeling rushing through Alex’s head. The spot on her neck where Kelley’s warm breath puffed against felt cool where the restaurant’s air met the moisture left behind.

Alex had seen Kelley laugh a million other times over the years the two had known each other. She doesn’t know what made this moment different.

The night continued and Alex tried to remain engaged with the flow of conversation, but her mind was elsewhere.

After leaving the restaurant everyone from the Royals and Pride hugged those from the other team goodbye, promising to text each other when they were home safe and excitedly wishing each other the best until the next camp. Though they knew they’d all talk before their next meeting.

“Everything okay?” Kelley whispered into Alex’s ear as they hugged goodbye. Alex nodded into the shorter girl’s shoulder, but her muscles were tense.

Kelley being a girl didn’t bother her. Alex had known she was bi for a long time, but with her relationship and eventual marriage with Servando lasting as long as it did, it wasn’t something that necessarily came up. People tended to assume she was straight until she mentioned otherwise. It was never something she hid but she got divorced the previous year the possibility of dating a girl wasn’t on the table, so while her friends and family knew, acquaintances didn’t really begin finding out until she began to get questioned about her dating life.

So no, it wasn’t Kelley being a girl that bothered her. What bothered her was that Kelley was her best friend and this wasn’t supposed to happen to her, the pining for someone who doesn’t feel the same way. Falling in love with your best friend is what happens when you’re an insecure high schooler, not when you’re thirty and confident in your sexuality.

They pulled away and Kelley looked at Alex with her brows furrowed, clearly unconvinced that the taller girl was okay.

“You sure, Al?” she asked softly, not wanting to draw the attention of the rest of the team, “you were kind of distant at dinner,” she said, bringing a hand up to Alex’s shoulder to gently massage the muscles.

“Yeah, just tired,” she responded with a slight smile, looking away to avoid Kelley’s eyes, which were filled to the brim with concern, “guess the fatigue from the game finally hit me.”

“You’re tense too though.”

“Just cold,” Alex shrugged, looking back at Kelley with her best attempt at a reassuring smile.

Kelley still looked unconvinced, but just sighed, realizing that if she was going to get anything out of Alex it wouldn’t be tonight. Instead, she dropped the subject but shrugged her jacked off of her shoulders, and pushed it into Alex’s hands, ignoring the beginning of Alex’s refusal, “just take it,” she said firmly.

Alex nodded, pulling the jacket around her shoulders, “thank you,” she mumbled.

She felt guilty. She couldn’t tell Kelley how she felt, especially not with the realization just hitting her. She barely had time to process it for herself, let alone make a confession to the woman she loved about it, so she swallowed the lump in her throat and the two hugged goodbye again, Kelley squeezing a little extra tight this time.

Kelley and the rest of the Royals’ team members gathered into their cars and headed towards their hotel to get some sleep before their long flight back the next day, while Alex climbed into the back of Ali and Ashlyn’s car for them to drop her back off at the stadium to pick up her own. She sunk into the back seat and pulled the jacket up around her face, taking a deep breath in through her nose, Kelley’s scent lingering in the denim of the jacket.

Ashlyn pulled out of the parking lot and Ali snuck a glance at Alex through the rearview mirror, a sad but knowing look in her eye that went unnoticed by the other woman who was still too caught up in her own head.

Ali didn’t know about the realization that Alex just had, if only because she’d assumed that the blue-eyed soccer player already knew, thinking it was obvious that the two best friends were meant for each other.

She turned to Ashlyn, taking her hand in her own over the center console, receiving a smile from her fiancée in return.


End file.
